Almost the same age as Prime Minister Mario Monti (who is a year younger), he perfectly follows his style, sober and down-to-earth but not necessarily charismatic, and exactly thirty years ahead of schedule – It was 1982 when he lifted that Cup to the sky as captain of Italy – brought Italian-style anti-stardom to the international limelight.
Hero of "submerged" made in Italy, the one of silence and work, sacrifice and discretion, light years away from the universally recognized cliché of the loud and inconclusive Italian, Dino Zoff turns 70 today. Of these, a good twenty spent them on the football fields defending the goals of Udinese, Mantua, Naples and Juventus, and above all of the Italian national team, with whom he collected 112 appearances in 15 years, subsequently surpassed only by Maldini and Cannavaro. He was also the captain of the national team and the only one to win both the European Championship (in 1968) and the World Cup (1982).
His career in the world of football, always in a silent but not resigned way, then continued for several more years, both from manager (Italy, Juventus, Lazio, Fiorentina) both as a manager, always at Lazio and then in the Football Federation.
But besides the unmistakable style, Zoff also has another thing in common with Mario Monti: the cover of Time, even then one of the most prestigious newspapers in the world, to seal the international recognition of an Italy that wins and is liked abroad. “Can this man save Europe?”, headlined the European edition of the American magazine last February 10, the day of the premier's visit to Obama. In the article Monti was defined as "the most important man in Europe".
Zoff did even better. The day after the triumph in Madrid on 9 July 1982, Time dedicated an entire advertising page to paying homage to the Azzurri, choosing an image of the Friulian champion as the symbolic photo: “Suddenly, the whole world is Italian” was the title, with a beautiful photo of Zoff who kindly handed the Cup to his companions, as in his style (Gentle can be seen), almost as if to say: "Please, it's yours too". It is also of all of you at home, all of you who are watching TV or reading the paper. It belongs to all Italians. Happy birthday goalkeeper.
